Thursday, September 15, 2016

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

In May I ran fear the deer trail half marathon. It's an awesome race mainly because I love the deer creek trails and run up there on the ref. It's a fairly technical trail with a few sections you can open it up..it's a solid trail race of climbing and bombing downhills. For 13 miles you end up climbing around 2500ft so there is lots of slow steep running and some power hiking, the key here is letting it rip on the downhills. Last year I got second and this time really wanted to run fast and see if I could win. I knew the CR was just a hair under 1:35:00 but didn't know the exact time and in Colorado you never know who will show up. My goal was to hang in the top 2-3 if some guys went out fast. Once we hit dirt I was already on the front and felt comfortable with pace knowing we had a 20min grind of a climb. One younger guy was only 10-15 seconds behind me and I could see he was right on my tail when we got up top. I hammered the downhills and once we got next climb I could see him...I kept the pressure on and was pretty maxed out but moving really..once we hit the first out and back I saw him and had about a 45 sec gap. He was moving good. I absolutely slammed the downhills and next out and back I was suffering pretty good but had over a minute on him. We had about 3-4 miles left mostly downhill. I felt ok and pushed hard to the finish. At the start I had started my stopwatch late so I wasn't exact sure on time...but finished in 1:35:08. I was told later the CR is 1:34:48 so I was super close. It's fun and really tough running maxed out for 90min but good speed training.

10k
Ran our local Roxborough 10k a couple weeks later. It's called the rox trot. We all went up the park and Becca and boys all were running the 5k. It's all paved but lots of short ups and down...not a flat or fast course but good training/speed work. I was a little tired from training but pushed well and won with a 37:15..felt good i still have a little speed despite all the ultra jogging. The boys did awesome and actually got 1st and 3rd for 11 and under. Not bad since they are 6 and 8! Ryder has a great pace and knows how to push himself and ran a 25min 5k on a tough course ...it's so awesome to see them both running. DIRTY 30 Next up in June was the big Dirty 30 race up in golden gate canyon. It's a classic Colorado trail ultra and always has a stacked and competing field. 50k is a challenging distance cause to be in the mix you gotta be running fast and racing but it's still also a 5hr race so pacing and nutrition still play a roll. The pace was fast from the gun and 15 or so guys quickly separated from the rest of the 300 or so runners. I felt really comfortable and was sitting in our near the top 10. We had a train of guys basically 4th through 15th all together. Chris Vargo was off the front from the gun and a couple poor souls tried to hang with him (he won by over 20min and got course record) Every mile it seemed someone was dropping off the pace and the group def kept the pace and pressure on. This race is technical and tons of climbing with 7200ft over the 31-32 miles. My buddy and teammate James was running well and we were in the same group for a bit with 5-6 other guys including Joel Hamilton, Josh Arthur, Jason Schlarb...I may have been the only one without a J first name. Such a cool course with a couple sections was full on scrambling up and over these little rocky peaks. Around mile 20 came a pretty solid climb and I was feeling it a bit but still ended up dropping 2 of the guys but Jason and josh dropped me super fast...over the next couple miles I reeled in two more guys. It was hot by now and rolled into mile 26 feeling OK, not terrible but not great. My calves kept cramping off and on and that was really slowing me down. I got passed once and then around mile 28 James caught me on the last grind of a climb...it's brutal. He ran super steady and I couldn't stay with him. I had to stop and stretch a couple times and just gut it out the last few miles...I felt like I was barely moving and expected to get passed by more people but didn't and actually passed one more guy in last 2 miles. I finished in 5:15 for 8th overall...my goal was top 10 so I was good with it. James finished a couple minutes in front of me for 7th. Great race on challenging terrain. I am fully convinced racing a 50k is hard...really hard, hard like running fast for 5hrs...that's hard stuff.

GOPRO games
A short week later I ran the GoPro games trail 10k . They call it the "10kish" cause it's more like 7 miles with 1800ft of vert all on some amazing trails above vail. The boys and Becca ran the 5k on Friday evening. Becca crushed and got 2nd overall female. The course was a huge challenge for the boys but they both did great and pushed through some serious side aches (haha) My race was on tired legs for sure and I was just hoping to hang top 10 since it's a super competitive race. All the really fast guys are there since there is prize money. I felt pretty decent and some of the downhills we were absolutely ripping. On one steep road I looked at watch and saw or pace was 4:30miles. 52 minutes of suffering I finished and was 10th place...funny. Was also glad to see I only lost 3-4 minutes to the "pro dudes".

we took the boys up a 13er (Sniktau)

LEADVILLE PREP!
Building up for Leadville my goal is to be faster on the flats and have better turnover for all the downhill running. I'm on a good build right know thanks to coach Patrick's help and plan. A bit more speed on the 1:30-3:00hr runs and adding a few longer days 6-7 hrs as we build towards the Leadville 100 on Aug 20th. Ive really been pushing some downhill running to get the legs ready as they can be. I don't have any races planned for July just quality training and some cool training challenges like the longs peak duathlon. ..I also want to be really hungry and super motivated when race day rolls around. Running 100 is so mental and being the right headspace is more important than any training session.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Here we go....training is in swing and things are getting closer, so it time to update the old blog. I recently read somewhere that blogs are old school. So until I get back on MySpace here is my season update and schedule. My main focus for this summer is Leadville 100. Was stoked to get in and since it was my first 100 miler back in 2013 (as part of Leadman) I am excited to see how much "faster" i can go on the course. I've been focusing a bit more in getting back some leg speed and running more flats as it can help tremendously on the Leadville course. Ran more steady than ever over the winter but definitely got a nice break in JAN. Been doing a lot more core work thanks to Becca's weekly class and having our basement gym fully done. I've also got some non race adventures planned with some fastpacking, bikepacking, 14ers, and some more Longs Peak Duathlon action. Happy trails.

Monday, December 7, 2015

﻿﻿﻿"Running 100 miles is elective adversity" (even if the adversity isn't physical)

﻿It's a mixed bag to finish a 100 mile run and knowing it wasn't what it could have been. I missed a turn at mile 90ish and dropped from 2nd place to the teens (I think I ended up running about 107 miles) Had it not been my day, or if I had some unforeseen issues, I think I would have been totally content to finish 14th and 22:50. But overall everything was going pretty great until the missed turn. This is not an excuse. I missed the turn, and most people didn't so it's still my bad to own and at the end of the day it's still a honor to be able to run 100miles.﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

The BEAR 100 is a point to point race from Logan Utah to Bear Lake Idaho. Overall there is some pretty rugged terrain and roughly 22k of climbing. It's a beautiful race put on by ultra runners who keep it low key. Just under 300 people usually start the run each year. With it being in September the weather is always un-predictable. Last year there was crazy rain and this year it would be the challenging heat. My Dad and me made the trip out together and met my good buddy Casey in Logan. It was great spending time with my dad and can't thank him enough for crewing like a champ for the whole race. We got all our gear dialed in on Thursday for the Friday start. 6am on Friday morning we started in a little residential park in the dark with headlamps and a few hundred run buddies. The course climbs right away with a big 4-5k climb up to the first aid station at mile 10. I knew a few would start fast so I just took it easy and settled in for some jogging and hiking. I found myself floating in the top 8-10 but really comfortable. Luke Nelson was off the front from the gun and most of us wondered if he could hold out all day. I spent some time catching up and running with Jesse Rickert (we ran together at SJS 50 in June), Jared Campbell, and a few other rad dudes. I actually gapped a few guys on the first little descent (not on purpose) and came into the mile 20 aid station I think in 5th or 6th. My dad was there and we quickly filled the flasks with water and skratch, ate some watermelon, and grabbed some skratch chews and a couple gels. I made sure to eat and drink a lot (I think I ate too much, more about that at mile 60!) A couple miles on a dirt road with an Australian guy and we started up another massive climb together. Miles 23-30 was basically all uphill, a lot of it was runnable and I made sure power hike anything steeper. ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿We got slowed down a bit by a bunch of cows...yep cows. It's open range cattle country so we trailed a bunch of cows on the single track climbs making them not so happy, which results in cow poop all over the trail and lots of mooing. After a couple brave butt slaps (on cows) from the Australian, three of us runners finally got around the cattle shit train. once the trail flattened out I ended up pulling away from the two guys I was with which was surprising cause I wasn't feeling great. It was really starting to warm up as we started down a steep dirt road into the aid station around mile 35. I got caught by one guy from Montana and we passed one more guy who was already looking pretty wrecked. It was good to have company and we rolled in and out of the aid station together. Leaving I dumped cold water on my head and I also left with my handheld bottle packed with ice and water. I was planning to just have my two 17 oz flasks (salomon s-lab vest) the whole way but once we knew it was probably going to hit 90 degrees, I opted to also carry a 20oz bottle of ice water from mid day till evening just to make sure I never ran out of water and to be able to keep my head and body cooler. It makes a huge difference. More climbing, more running (weird huh?) and another long decent into the aid station. Before I came into the aid station (mile 40ish) there is a little out and back. I saw Luke Nelson and then just a little behind him was Jesse Hayes (both of these dudes are real deal runners) Jesse had just run UTMB three weeks before! I was stoked to be catching these guys and couldn't help but wonder was I going a bit too hard...but I knew my average pace, and target times and I was right on track so I was totally confident I was ok. I caught Jesse and he stayed with me a bit, we both just did our own thing and soon he was outa site behind me. We still had half of the race left so I knew any one of these guys could easily be passing me again later on. Around mile 43-45 we hit a big wide open section and I could see I was gaining on someone. I soon caught Luke Nelson and we chatted a bit and even took a quick dip in the river to cool down. He told me the only guy in front of was John Fitzgerald from Ft Collins. He is a great runner and Luke said he looked super strong. As I came into mile 46-47 aid station my dad was there and said John was 15 min in front of me. I was feeling really good, no issues, nutrition and hydration on point. I made sure to just keep plugging away at my own pace and not to "try" to catch him. A few miles later I crested a hill and came up on John puking his guts out...I made sure he was ok and had what he needed. Lots of people throw up doing these races (he ended up puking for the next few hrs and then Rallied super hard to finish 6th!) I was on the lead!It was awesome but I honestly didn't want to be in first with 50miles left...oh well, I'll still take it. It was cool leading the race and coming through aid stations in the top spot. I came into mile 61 aid station and wasn't feeling great...my stomach was a little pissed. I saw Dad and Casey...what! I was super bummed for Casey. He told me he rolled his ankle really bad at mile 50 and had to pull the plug. I took a couple extra minutes here to drink, grab my BD headlamp and z poles. As I walked out of the aid station, Mick (eventual winner) rolled in looking solid. Super steep climb right away and I figured I only had 3-5 minutes on him...he caught me fast and was gone, he was crushing. I knew I had to take it easy and hope my "low spot" flushed out soon....I was hurting. I was barely moving up the steep terrain and I felt like I needed to puke. My stomach felt full and I figured I must had eaten too many calories early on when I felt good and hungry and it was just catching up with me. I was using Vespa (before) and during the race (every 4-6 hrs) and I'm a big fan of the stuff...so I just drank water and didn't eat anything and hoped that would help. I also knew this was just a bad spot that will happen at some point during every 100mile race. I just kept plugging away and really focused on the positive. It took a bit but I finally started feeling better around mile 73-74 (I think, things get hazy) I hadn't taken in any calories in almost 2hrs and everything felt balanced again. Thanks to aid station folks I knew Mick was an hour in front of me! But I hadn't lost time Jesse who was to 3rd and my dad estimated I had a 20-30 min gap on him. Mile 80 aid station I got some soup and coke; dad and Casey filled my vest....I rolled out feeling strong and noticed course markings where pretty sparse....a couple people had mentioned the last couple sections aren't marked very well...so I was really trying to stay aware and careful. I was running everything but the steep climbs and had the iPod rolling. In and out of mile 85 aid station (I was now 90 minutes behind Mick, he was flying) ﻿A few miles later is where I missed a hard right turn...not sure if it wasn't marked or I somehow totally missed the ribbons. After I while running down the road I had a bad feeling I was off. I was about to flip and saw a pink ribbon so I kept going.....too far...I know now I went downhill for way too long before I decided to back track (time is hard to gauge when the mind is hazy after 18hrs) On my way back up I saw the ribbon and realized it was old and faded so I knew I went off course and the long climb back up was so frustrating. Once I got back and found the missed turn I had probably lost 1.5hrs or more. I ended up running a few different guys and at the last aid station the volunteers mentioned several people saying that turn wasn't marked. Someone there told me my dad was there but had just left to go to finish since I was almost 2hrs slower than my projected time (they had no idea what happened to me)...man that last 7-8 miles to the finish was real tough after being completely deflated from the missed turn. It was a real weird mix of emotions rolling into the finish, Deep down I was happy to finish my 3rd 100miler, but couldn't get past the mistake and it definitely consumed my mind. It took a while to "get over" it but lessons learned and I know the experience will pay off somewhere down the line and is extra motivation. I still managed to finish and get the "badger" belt buckle for anyone who breaks 24hrs.

Within a few days of finishing the race I was already looking up if there was any 50-100k races I could do soon after. I wanted a bit of revenge, my internal competitiveness was still in the hunt. I felt like I recovered pretty fast and actually felt normal within a week or so but when I ran I could tell my body needed some more time. I just saw this weekend I didn't hit the lottery for western or Hardrock. I'm thinking back to Leadville or maybe Bighorn 100.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Lake City is
a great little “untouched” mountain town in the San Juan’s, evident by the
amount of “for sale” signs we saw on local businesses and property. It’s a
90minute drive or so from Gunnison. You could probably hike from Lake City to
Ouray as fast as you could drive; since you have to go all the way around a few
major mountains. This race has been going on for 25 years and is truly a
classic ultra. 50 miles with almost 13k of vertical many have dubbed it the
“mini hardrock”. It’s truly a town run race, and I heard a good chunk of the
town’s residents help and volunteer for the race. Look at the top times on
ultra-sign up and you’ll see a who’s who of talented ultra-runners.

We had a
great little Cabin just a couple blocks from the start. Race morning we got
ready, ate 3 eggs with spinach and a couple cups of coffee. Me and Becca woke
up Ryder, who was honestly just super pumped to be up at 4:30! And he kept
telling us this was the earliest he had ever been up, It was a great boost to
see him get psyched for something so simple and was a good reminder to be happy
and positive going into the race . Max and my Mom slept in in the other cabin.
Myself and the legendary Casey Hill jogged to the 5am start in the dark where
we met up with our teammate Gregand
Becca, Ryder and my Dad. We waited in the street for the start with a few hundred
other head lamped folks all tackling a long tough day in the mountains. Boom….nice
mellow jog out of town on some dirt roads as we gradually started uphill.
Everyone was perfectly content to take it easy this early. A couple miles comes
the first of several river crossings. It’s a smaller creek but was raging
enough there are ropes (that you need to hold into!) to help you across. I
think we crossed through the water about 7 or 8 times with the deepest one
getting my shorts wet. At this point we were just a few miles in and the climb
really starts to go up once we got through soaking our feet. The field had
thinned out and I found myself in 3rd place with Casey and a couple
other guys just behind us. Jesse Rickert from Gunnison and Micheal Barlow
(Aspen) where the two dudes I found myself off the front with. I found out
Jesse had run the race several times and our pace was solid but very manageable
so I settled in and decided he was a good person be with. Michael basically
dropped us halfway up the first steep climb! Me and Jesse powerhiked and
wondered out loud if Michael would blow up or crush us (he crushed). The race climbs roughly
5k in the first 10 miles and as we got above tree line I made sure to slow down
a few times and breathe in the views as I was sucking wind around 12,000 feet.
Jesse and I just kept a good cruising pace over some pretty rough sections up
high and could see Mike about 60-90 seconds in front of us. As we started the
few mile decent into the first aid station (mile 15-16) I pulled away from
Jesse and actually caught Michael. We chatted and jogged into the aid station
in 1st and 2nd place. I was reminding myself we still had
a ton of racing and don’t be dumb. Becca, my Dad, and Ryder had everything
ready to go. Dropped off my headlamp, grabbed some gels, and filled the flasks
with Skratch and water. We left the aid station at the same time and ran the
few miles of dirt road to the next big climb. Around mile 18-19 we veered off
the road and started up a steep 4x4 road/trail. Within a couple minutes he
dropped me and was running super solid. I wasn’t feeling stellar so I settled
down and started power hiking the steep stuff, soon I was mostly just hiking
and my legs felt slow and heavy. I looked back as one does when feeling crappy,
and saw Jesse quickly gaining on me. We rolled into the Mile 22-23 aid station
together and he left just before me. I ate some watermelon and even grabbed
some coke. I could see him just a minute or less in front of me as we once
again where above tree line. I continued to struggle and lose time, I kept
waiting to feel better, but I just got slower and my quads were hurting pretty
bad. After a couple false summits to the highest point of the race (around
12,500ft) I got passed again, this time by Dustin Simeon. He was moving well
and I tried to stay on his feet, it didn’t work. I was warned the 9-10 mile
section up on the continental divide was tough and be ready. Since I was
already hurting and had dropped to 4th I wasn’t exactly “feeling it”
at all. I had to stop and stretch the quads a couple times, and the snow
sections really slowed the pace. A couple times I was up to my waist in snow
drifts. I just tried to keep moving and hope things got better. Once I got a
little lower my pace increased in a bit but I felt like I was losing ground and
was truly waiting for more people to pass me. When I got close to the aid
station around mile 34-35 I saw Dustin
running out so he was only about 4-5 minutes in front of me. This gave me a
little boost knowing I wasn’t totally dragging. I made sure to eat some more
food and coke, fill up on skratch and get moving. The race volunteer’s here
were awesome and really encouraging. After a mile or so I slowly started to
feel better but my quads were totally fried. I could still run, but it hurt.
After stressing for a bit thinking I was off course for 10-15 minutes (I
wasn’t) it was a steep descent into mile 40 aid station. I knew the whole family
was there so I tried to hammer it in. The legs hurt whether I walked/jogged/ran
so I ran as best I could. I decided to ditch the vest and go one handheld
bottle for the last 10 miles. I made a fast transition at the aid station and
it was great seeing the boys cheering. Becca jogged out with me and told me 2nd
and 3rd place guys where 7-8 minutes in front of me, she also said
they didn’t look great (she would never say they looked strong right?). I had
to dig deep, real deep. I was hurting and knew we had 10 miles left and a one more
tough climb (2-3miles long). I decided I would absolutely bury myself to see if
I could catch them, and if I didn’t then 4th was ok. It was a huge
mental challenge, but mentally I didn’t want to give up and I wanted to see
myself pass them or completely implode trying. I grabbed two sticks (nature's trekking
poles) at the start of the climb and power hiked really well up the 2+ miles…I
finally saw them both together in a big meadow opening. I timed the gap and I
had closed it to 4min. This was another good boost, but we only had 5 miles or
so to go. I ran a couple downhill sections pretty reckless but I knew I had to
do everything I could to catch them. I saw Jesse and right as I passed him I
saw the last aid station and Dustin was there dumping water on his head (it was
pretty hot by now) I just filled my bottle and kept running. When I passed
Dustin I decided to run as hard as my legs would allow for 3-4 minutes just to
gap him and Jesse. The adrenaline surged and I felt awesome for a couple short
minutes…then reality hit and I thought for sure they would catch me again. The
steeper stuff was killing my quads and I even had to run backwards a couple
times to help. Once I could see the river and town I knew I was ok since it was
only a mile or so to the finish. As I ran into town it felt so great to see the family and I could hear Becca before I could see her (as usual!) Felt really good to know I had
raced my way back into 2nd place, but I was smashed…totally smashed.

Back in May I raced the Fear The Deer half-marathon close to home at Deer Creek park. It had been raining like crazy, so training was interesting leading into the race and it fully felt like the PNW
here in Colorado for a few weeks. Myself and teammate James Walsh were both racing and honestly though the race would be cancelled. Luckily the trails are pretty "gravely" and the water drained well and the trails actually weren't terribly muddy. Race morning was overcast and drizzling and rain was coming...It was kinda cool and way different than our "normal conditions". People milling around the start were complaining about conditions which I find so bizarre. My thoughts: If you don't like the conditions, don't race...no one is forcing you. Why start the race in a bad mood or negative place? I think being positive CAN affect your race as much as fitness. Noticed some legit fast folks at the start. (J. Marshall Thompson, Stevie Kremer, and some fast marathon road guy (Jason Fitzgerald I think?) the race director called out before the start. (no pressure!)...and of course my buddy James is always crazy fast even though he was just "training". My goal was really to break 1:40 for a hard 13.1 miles with roughly 2500ft of climbing. I knew if I felt good I should break 1:40 by a few minutes and hopefully be in mix for a top 3 finish. It's fairly technical but runnable terrain and favors strength over turnover. I know these trails really well and hoped that would help me out.

J Marshall and Jason F. quickly took the lead on the climb right outa the gate. I was hanging back just a bit and was pretty maxed out on the climb, but still within myself. Once we hit a first little downhill I caught up to Jason really fast, as his descending was slow...I realized that second this guy is definitely a road runner and with the amount of hard downhill's we had left I could put time on him and hope he didn't crush me too bad on the climbs. The three of us already had a decent gap and started up "the wall" together for the rest of the first long climb. It was obvious J Marshall was the guy to beat. He is a world class skimo racer and has won all kinds of mountain races of all distances. I could tell Jason was working harder than us so I was happy to ride his feet and wait to see what happened. I topped out at Plymouth around 19min and they only had about 20 seconds on me. Caught back up to Jason and passed him (he was struggling) and could see Marshall up a few seconds. We hit first turnaround together and started back down to main trail (red mesa loop)...it was drizzling and pretty cold, but and we were pushing hard. On way back we saw the rest of the top 5-6 runners and James was crushing and making up ground big time. On the long descent before the last climb I pulled into the lead and realized maybe I could out descend him (or he was just letting me dangle?!) On the last grind up to Plymouth loop he put in a solid effort and dropped me. At the second turnaround he had about 30 seconds on me. On they way back I saw James and he had just passed Jason and a couple others. I hammered the descent and could see Marshall a few times but knew I wasn't likely to catch him. As I got close and saw Becca and the boys there cheering me on. I was trying not fall as this was the muddiest and slickest section of the whole race. I finished in 135:48 (exactly a minute behind J Marshall) and was told we both ran CR on a slightly longer course in the rain. James had a great first race in his new Colorado home for 3rd.

Friday, May 8, 2015

My every 6month update....and gotta say I'm excited for 2015.
Started off the season as I have the last couple with a great MOAB training camp and we also raced
the ADVENTURE XTREME adventure race with Patrick Valentine. We won last year and had hoped to win again, but
after missing a checkpoint and losing a bit of time we didn't have a big enough cushion starting the long paddle
section. We out ran and out biked the guys that beat us, but with a faster paddle they came out on top. Still had a
ton of fun and good to push hard for 7hrs (ouch). We also did some killer Moab riding and rode Captain Ahab's for the
first time..so fun! I now have a new favorite Moab trail.

Training is good and I got Patrick coaching me again for this season
of races. My main focus is SAN JUAN SOLTICE at the end of JUNE...this classic 50miler in the San Juans looks amazing and hard. After that I'll be gearing up for some long days up high as I train for the BEAR100 in Utah.